Periodic Reporting for period 2 - TRANSIT (Training Network Sustainable Technologies)
Reporting period: 2023-03-01 to 2025-02-28
Sustainable food production has become a worldwide priority. High Hydrostatic Pressure, Pulsed Electric Field, Ultrasound and Non-Thermal Plasma are non-conventional technologies that offer consumer benefits like clean label food products and solutions to anti-microbial resistance. The overarching aim of the TRAining Network SustaInable Technologies (TRANSIT) was to train ten early stage researchers in the field of sustainable food production to endow them with the necessary transferable skills to contribute to technological innovation that aims to
1. responsibly produce food to feed the increasing population with high-quality and safe food;
2. optimize non-conventional food production by implementation of low-energy use technologies and/or replacement of chemical preservatives to further reduce food waste;
3. integrating consumer perception in the product development phase and addressing consumer choices in relation to processed products.
TRANSIT’s consortium joined forces of 15 participating organisations from 8 European countries and offered a unique blended training program with research training, secondments, summer schools and workshops at the interfaces of microbiology, process technology, cost benefit analyses, risk assessment and consumer sciences.
1. responsibly produce food to feed the increasing population with high-quality and safe food;
2. optimize non-conventional food production by implementation of low-energy use technologies and/or replacement of chemical preservatives to further reduce food waste;
3. integrating consumer perception in the product development phase and addressing consumer choices in relation to processed products.
TRANSIT’s consortium joined forces of 15 participating organisations from 8 European countries and offered a unique blended training program with research training, secondments, summer schools and workshops at the interfaces of microbiology, process technology, cost benefit analyses, risk assessment and consumer sciences.
TRANSIT is a multidisciplinary, cross academic-industry and international training network funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (H2020-MSCA-ITN-2020, Grant No. 955431). TRANSIT provided training to ten early stage researchers (ESRs) and commenced its 48-months training network on 1 March 2021, and all ESRs were in place by 1 December 2021. A website (www.transit-itn.com) was launched to support the exploitation and dissemination of TRANSIT’s objectives, aims and results. In addition, other social media routes were being exploited (X, LinkedIn, Facebook).
Three summer schools were organized throughout the action, with leading roles and significant input from industry partners. Also, four workshops were organized back-to-back or in conjunction with international conferences to disseminate TRANSIT’s result to a broad audience, namely,
1st workshop ‘Food Sustainability & Safety in a Changing Climate’ (10 November 2022, Dublin, Ireland), co-organized with the EU-funded project PROTECT (Grant No. 813329) and scheduled back-to-back with EFFoST2022.
2nd workshop, organized under two separate events ‘Towards the Development of Quantitative Microbiological Risk Assessment for Non-Thermal Technologies’ and ‘Food Processing Technologies and Viruses and Parasites’ (5 May 2023, Aberdeen, Scotland), in conjunction with the IAFP European meeting.
3rd workshop ‘Addressing the Challenges in Developing Future Foods’ (10-11 April 2024, Ghent, Belgium), co-organized with the EU-funded projects E-MUSE (Grant No. 956126) and SUPREME (Grant No. 101058422), in conjunction with FoodSim2024.
4th workshop ‘Paving Market Uptake of Innovative Technologies’ (13 November 2024, Bruges, Belgium), in conjunction with EFFoST2024.
TRANSIT’s final conference (15 November 2024, Bruges, Belgium) entitled ‘Emerging Risks & Sustainably Produced Foods’ was co-organized with the EU-funded project FoodSafer (Grant No. 101060698), and with support from academic and industry partners. The conference was open to researchers, regulatory agencies, and industry professionals, serving as an effective platform to disseminate TRANSIT’s results.
The action resulted in the identification of the main microbial molecular targets in five model species that represent major food associated pathogens and spoilage organisms in order to design effective antimicrobial impact strategies. In concert with TRANSIT’s non-academic partners, the product range for application was being extended taking into account consumer acceptance, and upscaling of the equipment was realised, while predictive models were developed to accelerate market uptake of sustainably produced foods. The domain of use of the generic and product-specific predictive models is broad as they can serve as valuable tools for guiding regulatory authorities and food business operators in quantitative microbial risk assessments. Additionally, they can assist industrial applications in new product design, and in prioritizing certain process parameters over others and optimizing the treatments for maximum decontamination efficacy. Together with the equipment demonstrators, extended product portfolio, the publications and the developed published predictive models, TRANSIT’s results will strengthen the European innovation capacity in sustainable food production.
Three summer schools were organized throughout the action, with leading roles and significant input from industry partners. Also, four workshops were organized back-to-back or in conjunction with international conferences to disseminate TRANSIT’s result to a broad audience, namely,
1st workshop ‘Food Sustainability & Safety in a Changing Climate’ (10 November 2022, Dublin, Ireland), co-organized with the EU-funded project PROTECT (Grant No. 813329) and scheduled back-to-back with EFFoST2022.
2nd workshop, organized under two separate events ‘Towards the Development of Quantitative Microbiological Risk Assessment for Non-Thermal Technologies’ and ‘Food Processing Technologies and Viruses and Parasites’ (5 May 2023, Aberdeen, Scotland), in conjunction with the IAFP European meeting.
3rd workshop ‘Addressing the Challenges in Developing Future Foods’ (10-11 April 2024, Ghent, Belgium), co-organized with the EU-funded projects E-MUSE (Grant No. 956126) and SUPREME (Grant No. 101058422), in conjunction with FoodSim2024.
4th workshop ‘Paving Market Uptake of Innovative Technologies’ (13 November 2024, Bruges, Belgium), in conjunction with EFFoST2024.
TRANSIT’s final conference (15 November 2024, Bruges, Belgium) entitled ‘Emerging Risks & Sustainably Produced Foods’ was co-organized with the EU-funded project FoodSafer (Grant No. 101060698), and with support from academic and industry partners. The conference was open to researchers, regulatory agencies, and industry professionals, serving as an effective platform to disseminate TRANSIT’s results.
The action resulted in the identification of the main microbial molecular targets in five model species that represent major food associated pathogens and spoilage organisms in order to design effective antimicrobial impact strategies. In concert with TRANSIT’s non-academic partners, the product range for application was being extended taking into account consumer acceptance, and upscaling of the equipment was realised, while predictive models were developed to accelerate market uptake of sustainably produced foods. The domain of use of the generic and product-specific predictive models is broad as they can serve as valuable tools for guiding regulatory authorities and food business operators in quantitative microbial risk assessments. Additionally, they can assist industrial applications in new product design, and in prioritizing certain process parameters over others and optimizing the treatments for maximum decontamination efficacy. Together with the equipment demonstrators, extended product portfolio, the publications and the developed published predictive models, TRANSIT’s results will strengthen the European innovation capacity in sustainable food production.
TRANSIT’s training network succeeded in providing high-quality professional and interdisciplinary training to enhance the career perspective and employability of the ESRs. TRANSIT’s triple i (international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral) research and experience programme contributed to structuring multidisciplinary PhD education and training programs in Europe in the field of quantitative risks assessments, consumer and risk perception, and commercialisation of results. TRANSIT generated new scientific evidence on the effectiveness of non-conventional preservation methods and on their optimisation and upscaling to pilot scale or an industrial relevant scale. As such, this will assist companies in the food and drink industry in i. deciding whether a non-conventional technology is beneficial for them, ii. understanding of the best practices to implement and validate the technologies. TRANSIT’s industrial partners will exploit and showcase their upscaled equipment and product portfolio to be frontrunners in the introduction of a new generation of sustainably processed food, and to support the transition towards sustainable food systems.